ishares. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing. melissa: i'm melissa francis and here's what's "money" tonight. fiscal cliff negotiations between president obama and congress kick off. the pressure mounts for the gop to cave. so how far will they go to stand their ground? one republican senator is here with the answer. plus an oil rig explodes in the gulf of mexico just one day after bp's record settlement for the 2010 gulf spill disaster. could it spark a new federal crackdown on gulf oil production? >> the day the twinkie died. hostess is closing its doors for good after failing to break a union labor strike. can the iconic brand still survive in the afterlife? the ceo of hostess will join us coming up. even when they say it's not it is always about twinkies.

melissa: all right. first let's take a look at the day's market headlines. cautious optimism over today's fiscalliff negotiations put stocks in the green. the dow rose for just the second time since the election gaining 45 points. shares of dell got hammered today. the computer-maker announced its third quarter profit dropped by nearly half while giving a cautious revenue outlook. facebook shares close out their best week since the company's may ipo the end to a lockup of 800 million shares failed to bring the stock dive that many experts had predicted. mr. obama opening fiscal cliff negotiations with congressional leaders at the white house today. lawmakers attending a sit-down called it constructive but tension is rising which side may blink first. pressure is intensifying on republicans to be the ones that do it. is a compromise on tax hikes

just around the corner? joining me with more on this, republican senator from north dakota, john hoeven. senator, thank you so much for joining us. give us your take on today's meeting. what happened? >> good to be with you, melissa. i think you said it just right, cautious optimism. i think we laid out the construct that could lead to a big deal and we need to do it. melissa: what is that construct? what do you think the final deal looks like? >> pro-growth tax reform, entitlement reform and better spending control and a deal that is in that four to 6 trillion dollar range. melissa: what is pro-growth tax reform? to me that, from a republican sounds like the closing of loopholes and not raising of marginal rates? >> well it is closing loopholes. it is limiting deductns and then getting revenue from growth. and that's really the only way you will get revenue because you have to have the economy grow. if you start raising those rates you will have just the other effect. you will have a shrinking economy. you will not get more revenue.

so we are putting revenue on the table the right way. that is what i mean by pro-growth tax reform. melissa: sounds like you're still saying no to an increase in marginal rates which a lot of republicans would applaud. but others would say, you know maybe we're not going to get a deal done at this point if you don't raise marginal rates. do you not agree with that? >> we're doing exactly what president obama is asking for. we're saying don't raise rates. therefore you're not raising taxes on the middle class. by closing loopholes, by limiting deductions now you do have as he says, the wealthy paying more and look the only way you're going to get more revenue is with economic growth. we have to get to ecomy going. we have got to get people back to work. combine that with real entitlement reform and better control of spending and we get back on track. melissa: the way that you just phrased it, ile many people might agree the president says the math just doesn't get you there. you know -- >> but the math does work. melissa: makes me feel like we're not going to get to

any kind of a deal. >> look at the mth. we already have one trillion that we'll capture next 10 ars as a result of budget control act. you have another, trillion excuse me from the vca. one trillion because we don't have cost of wars. what i just laid out would easily get you another 4 trillion. that is 6 trillion dollar deal. that gets us back on track. melissa: a recent poll found 53% of the people say if a deal doesn't come tgether and we go over the fiscal cliff they would blame republicans for that. do you care? does that make a difference right now? >> look, it's about getting a solution. it has to be bipartisan. we're reaching out in a very bipartisan way. we're taking both republicans and democrats to get the deal done. we do it, we do it together or we share the blame together. melissa: what is the most important thing you want to see democrats put on the table? >> we have got to do entitlement reform. we can do entitlement reform where we don't change at all for anyone 55 or older.

younger people want to see the kind of reforms that will keep those programs solvent for the long term. so look, republicans and democrats can come together. and older and younger demographics can come together with the construct we put forward. i'm hopeful we can get a deal. we need to do a deal. i believe, or at least have it in place before year-end. melissa: what does that mean have it in place? do you think that we're going to end up having some sort of cobbled together temporary solution to get us through the end of the year where you set another exploding deadline where you have to do something real, maybe in june or later in the year? >> melissa,hat is a great question. no. what i mean is that you have the construct of the deal and it is agreed to. you may have to have a short-term extension so you have time to fully implement it. it has to be agreed to. so you've got, as speaker boehner talked about, penalties that would go into place if it is not done. so the construct in place. a short term agreement to get it fully done, not kicking the can down the

road. melissa: that can gets kicked all the time. senator, thanks for joining use appreciate it. >> thanks, melissa. melissa: not just d.c. that is copg with uncertainty surrounding the fiscal cliff. stocks suffered a brutal week despite the modest gains we saw today. jonathan hoenig is portfolio manager at capitalist pig.com. he said there is a lot more ready to come unless we get the fiscal house in order unless we do that fast >> catching up on your book. congratulations terrific new book. enjoying quite a book. melissa: you are a genius. you are a fantastic. my favorite guest of all time. what is that book you're reading there? i don't know if i saw the cover. oh. >> outstandin you will learn a lot. unfortunately not what the market wants to know which is about the fiscal cliff and future of our economy. melissa: yeah. >> i'm enjoying your new memoir. melissa: fantastic. i love you for that. i already, sent the check ahead. >> no, no. melissa: i was going to say i hope you got it but obviously you did.

the market, here's the problem. i don't see any reason to buy stocks right now. i mean it seems like you want to sell beforehe end of the year because you want to get any gains that you possibly can at a lower tax rate. you certainly don't want to buy anything you're not willing to hold for the next four years. i just, i don't see any reason to invest in the economy not getting better. is there any reason to buy stocks? >> that is just it, missa. what kind of confidence can any investor, whether "joe six-pack" or big institution in having a system, investing in a system and a market that is so wrought with uncertainty? we heard that a lot. it is not economic uncertainty. it is political uncertainty. business people of all size are trying to make the rational long-term decisions we literally can not when literally trillions and trlions of dollars is on the line solely based on political whim. melissa: is it fiscal cliff, even if they come to a deal

on the fiscal cliff not like the economy is getting better anytime soon. i see why it would be a disaer if we go over but i think we're in bad shape either way. >> i don't disagree. short term fiscal cliff or tumult in washington creates uncertainty. longer term the policy that will govern where this economy goes. and i think, as you pointed out some of the tax issues if that alone, the policy, as long as you continue down that path of highers taxes higher regulation, more intervention, a lost folks are saying will i want to participate in a game that simply seems rigged? melissa: what would you do from here? a lot of people asked me before the election, if president obama is reelected won't the stock market go up. i said no, absolutely. everyone says it will go down and at is exactly what happened. i want to give them the same sage advice . what do you do? do you buy gold? do you maybe, maybe real estate now is starting to make a lot of sense. prices are very low. terest rates are very low. you have to invest in something you can hold for a

long time right now. god forbid you don't want to make any money. the government will take it away from you. what do you do? >> one of the most interesting things i have seen, melissa, since the election, since this downdraft has been incredible weakness a lot of old lead he is. like gold as you pointed out. income and dividend-paying stocks, utilities. those have been exceptionally weak. what i'm putting my clients are in other types of inflation plays. most notably selling short bonds. all the intervention in interest rates. hoing down interest rates to abormally low levels i think will result in substantially higher rates and i'm selling short bonds in advance of that. melissa: you have to really understand the timing on that though, right? i mean in't timing important if you're going to y to do that? >> well, i think timing is important when it comes to any investment. that's why i thi most for every investor. whatever seizure to resist the urge to look at the day's headlines and make all or nothing decision. you want to invest, slowly

overtime not all in, all out one day. evaluate current market conditions. take your position. watch and wait. don't make investing any sort all or none deal. melissa: that is such fantastic advice right now because god forbid, you make any money the government will take it away from you. you want to invest i something you can let ride quietly and hide in your bunker is only way to deal right now. get back to your reading. thanks for coming on. there you go. all right. thank you. melissa: fiscal cliff isn't just shaking up the stock market, an unnerving new report from zillow. it says it could slam the housing market. there goes my other investment idea. just when we seem to recover here is explain, stan humphries, chief economist from zillow. i only had two ideas here. i was going with gold and real estate. now you're saying the fiscal cliff will deroy real estate? how is that the case? >> it was hard to hold my tongue during the prior guest ho attractive real

estates looks. melissa: you have it. depress me. >> affordability is extrordinarily high. definitely uncertainty is the not the friend of the housing market right now. that is why the fiscal cliff is concerning. look what happened to the debt ceiling debacle last summer where really our failure to navigate that very successfully really dinged consumer confidence which in turn rippled through the housing market with lower sales and lower prices. melissa: drill down on that. you say nobody will buy a house in the next few weeks until we get this resolved because we don't know what will happen to the economy and buying market will slow down or is there another reason the fiscal cliff is hurting the housing market. >> near term, six weeks or five weeks until the end of the year the market believe theris no credible plan in place there will be bad response in terms of equity markets and a number of other economic indicators. that ripples into consumer confidence. consumer confidence has been

trending up since the middle rt of late part of last year. and consumer confidence is really important because it's what helps employers feel better about hiring and also helped household formation rates increase. without jobs growing and householding forming you have a ding on housing demand. housing demand turn spirals into falling home prices. >> what if for some reason you believe this plane load of jokers we sent back to washington is going to pull it together and they will come up with something? that does that make housing a surprisingly good buy if you happen to believe that for some reason? >> yeah i thin right now that is the expectation. so in a sense the market is already, i think the housing market is already baking in the expectation that we'll ride this out. i think it is downside risk versus upside risk. melissa: that's too bad. >> well i think the upside of housing right now is 2013, fiscal cliff aside if we handle that successfully,

2013 should see a nice ride. this year we were up 10% from the prior year. demands returning to the marketplace. affordability is insanely high for housing. >> i see we're looking at mortgage rates right now and another record on the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate 3.34. i mean this is the lowest rate since 1971. and you're looking at folks out there, anyone who has money, is saying to themselves, well, i don't want to buy stocks because i'm going to get punished for that. i don't want to buy anything short term. i don't want to make any moneworking. that will be taken away from me. all i can really d is invest in assets that can appreciate quietly over time the and i don't have to realize those gains. there aren't that many that are that reliable. real estate happens to be one of them. prices are incredit i low. mortgage rates are incredibly low. this seems like a real entry point to me. >> i think it is for a lot of homebuyers depending on your time horizon. even with people with very low time horizons being

under three years in the house. look at break even horizon to make a buying a house more advantageous of renting, detroit, central valley of california and many parts of florida that number sunday two years. it is incredibly affordable. melissa: yeah. >> certainly for investotors as well, so seen if you're noa homebuyer but investor instead that potential is looking very goo a big chunk of phoenix and miami purchase demand is coming from investors seeing these 5% increases in rents. melissa: buy something cheap that you can rent out to someone else. seems like a decent investmento ride out this time. thank you so much for coming on. i think i talked you out of the your position. but no, i'm just kidding. thanks for coming on, we appreciate it. >> thank you. melissa: a massive oil rig explosion rocks the gulf. could this spawn a new freeze on drilling by the federal government? we'll get answers to that coming up. oil prices leap with israel reportedly preparing for a ground invasion the gaza strip. the stakes for mideast energy supplies could really

not be higher. details what is standing in the cross-hairs. more money coming up ♪ [ male announcer ] how could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the aerospace inindustry in the u.s.? at t. rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. it's just one reason over 75% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper average. t. rowe price. invest with confidence. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment informaon, risks, fees and expenses to read d consider carefully before investing.

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melissa: all right. just one day after bp's record settlement on the 2010 gulf oil spill anotter rig explosion rocksed the gulf today. the fire, look at that. the fire has reportedly been put out but the u.s. coast guard said it spotted a two by a quarter mile oil sheen right around the rig. you know what that means. gulf oil production is already struggling to come back after the bp oil spill. could this put a fresh jam in the spokes? joining me now is the omni trading academy presint and chief analyst. welcome back to the show, oscar. what do you think about this? >> well, you know on the onset when you see the spill and hear bit of course the tragedy we're worried about. two people are missing. we have the human tragedy. melissa: of course. >> but then there is the oil spill and here's what is interestin you realizehat happened with the bp oil spill in 2010, that what we didn't know what was going to happen was this? apparently mother nature has no qualms with slapping the

human race with a storm like sandy you about doesn't like when the human race slaps it back with the oil spill. when we had the bp oil spill hydrocarbon chewing microbes came out of the ocean and ate up the methane gas and all the oil that was spilled. something we didn't know happened until that oil spill. believe it or not as ugly as it seems we have something on our side, mother nature helps to clean that mess over some time. so i don't think it will stop the permitting. melissa: i didn't know about that i'm betting a lot of people who live in the area and a lot of people who oversee the regulations may not know or be educated about that. they may see something like this and say, here we go again. yesterday we had folks on from virginia trying to ramp up the offshore drilling in that area when those leases had been canceled after the bp oil spill. you know, it is just this kind of picture makes politicians nervous about allowing these things to go on because they know that people in the area get upset

and worried about their own health, right? >> absolutely. and it's horrible, horrible for the people who live anywhere near an oil spill. we should never have these oil spills. it is a manmade horror. really anatrocity but they do happen and here's t thing though that is changing in the uned states. in utah last year we found over a billion barrels of oil deposited in utah. this yea a couple of months ago, in nevada we found the largest oil deposit they think ever on record. they think it rivals if not passes saudi arabia. from what i read the statis it beings u.s. on line by 2017 to 2020 to surpass saudi arabiain the production of oil and gas to supply the world. melissa: you're talk about fracking and talking about shale. that is good poi. does this make the case for shale and fracking when you at the same time we're hearing about the bp settlement? wee remind of a story, 4.5 dal billion in fines at the same time we're looking at

photos like this, that maybe while it is obviously a vote for offshore drilling, does it encourage more onshore shale and fcking? >> i would think yes because if there were a spill it could absolutely be contained right there. we ca continue the spill on land and it is not, it doesn't spill the way they do fracking. the process is such, really only spillageater they're using, some steam to clean it up. of course it is not enviroentally perfect and i'm not saying it is but we have to save the american way. i think that is way more important. melissa: we need energy, we do, but when we look at pictures it is always tough. oscar, thanks for coming on. have a great weekened. >> thank you so much. melissa: time for today's fuel gauge report. intensifying violence between israel and hamas sent oil prices climbing. crude rose nearly 1 1/2% settling at $86.67 a barrel. the epa shooting down a waiver request for ethanol

fuel production requirements. 10 governors made the request, 10 governors! they say because of lack of corn from the drought. epa says they found no evidence, no evidence to support the claims. the long island power authority is facing $800 million in damages from super storm sandy. thetility is eligible however to get a 75% reimbursement from fem the remaining 25% will likely be passed on to customers. so that means we're paying it either way. either fema, that is our tax dollars or customers, also us. all right. egypt's leaders throw their support behind hamas as jerusalem comes under rocket attack. could egypt be ready to intervene with israel gearing up for a gaz ground invasion? plus an american icon gets baked for go. hostess is shutting down. i'm going to do this wile i still can. that is good stuff. nothing ever tastes this good. so sad, at the same time.

can we live without the twinkie? i'm stockpiling. the ceo is coming up. you never have too many twinkies.

♪ . melissa: so fighting between hamas and israel escalating to fever pitch today. hamas firing rockets at jerusalem for the first time with israel reportedly preparing for a ground offensive in gaza. in a disturbing twist egypt's leaders are getting behind hamas in the conflict. does this mean that egypt could join the fight? for insight we're joined by kt mcfarland, fox news security analyst. former deputy assistant secretary of defense. welcome to the show first of all. >> thank you. melissa: thanks so much for joining us. the development with egypt's prime minister is scary. visiting t gaza strip. voicing support for hamas.

it seems like this is really escalating and taking a new turn. >> well there are two things to look at with this. one, ey have been at war for a couple days now. hamas on the gaza strip has been firing missiles into israel. now, israel could do one of two things. they could decide this is my clint eastwood, make my day moment and go and attack all of the missile batteries along the gaza strip. there are thousandstens of thousands of missiles capable of reaching israel. that is why israel has the tanks along the border and preparing potentially for an invasion. why would they do that? obviously to get rid of missiles. it gives them options with iran. say six months from now israel decides to have a preemptive strike against iran's nuclear facilities. the retaliation that iran would launch would be those same missiles on the gaza strip coming into israel. this is sort of preemption of the preemption. melissa: precursor? >> gives them better option. melissa: why did this break out now?

why is this happening? >> i think a couple of reasons. one is because, you know, gaza, they sort of fire missiles off every now and then. but the other is renewed relationship now, very different relationship between the hamas, which is a muslim brotherhood organizati, and the muslim brotherhood which is now running egypt. and that's what you got to watch. you were right to point out egypt. what will egypt do? for 40 years, egypt and israel have not gone to war with each other because they have a peace agreement. you have new leadership in egypt. leadership which already said, maybe we'll rethink that pea treaty we have. if there is israeli-gaza war, would egypt join it? would they help? would they abrogate that peace trty? most importantly will they open up the border between the gaza strip and egypt and then that allows arms to go from libya, eastern libya, through egypt, into the gaza stri melissa: would you. all this gets more complicated we think about energy, a third of the

world's oil, 36% comes from this region, a little more than a third. ilso worry about the sue west canal which is right there. >> you should. nobody is paying attention. everybody looking at persian gulf. look at the suez canal, 120 miles long. i it is so narrow it is a single lane with a few passing lanes in it. the sinai peninsula which is the piece of land between israel and egypt, pret vacant. desert, nobody is there except al qaeda set up shop there recently. if somebody decides they want to take out a tanker that is going through the suez canal or mine part of the suez canal, 120 miles long, loosely defended, you could do some real damage there. th that takes all the trade that goes from europe to south asia, all of a sudden they have to go arou africa. melissa: real quick, before we go, looking at the pictures overnight and this morning and even our reporters there in the area that are in helmetsand in gear, seems like this has gotten very serious all of a sudden, has really escalated.

is that just right or is that the pictures? >> we haven't paid any attention to israel because we're worried about the arab spring and iran. i don't think it will happen in the next 24 hours. not while the egyptian prime minister is in the gaza strip. israel doesn't wanto kill him in any way, give them a reasono goto war. melissa: you think that is why he went? is he there -- >> i think he is there for couple reasons. one supposedly to maybe broker a peace agreement. melissa: right. >> more likely, hamas, what are you guys going to do? maybe we'll be in it. melissa: kt, very scary. thank you. forget gas shortages, hostess is shutting down its doors for good. the frenzy for its beloved products is breaking out. look at those sno balls. we're stockpiling here at money. are twinkie's days really numbered? the ceo of hostess joins us. "piles of money" coming up. ♪ .

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♪ . melissa: it is a sad, sad day for america. hostess, the maker of twinkies, my favorite, who whos ding dongs, all sorts of confessi shun airy goodness is closing its doors for good. 82 years, 82 years, failed to reach a compromise with its unions. 18,000 people are expected to lose their jobs. the ceo is on the phone from winston-salem, north carolina. they shut out the lights so he is on the phone. how much are you blaming the union. i think you made a dl with the teamsters. 30% of the workers are represented by the baker as union. they were the ones you couldn't make a deal with, is that right and how much blame are you putting on them? >> quite a bit, melissa.

certainly the catalyst for making a painful issue to shut down is directly as a result of the strike the kers initiated starting last friday. ey do represent 30% of our workforce. they're not our largest union the teamsters are our largest union. the teamsters voted to approve the concessions. they were, and they were still at work this week. we had other union engineers and others that were crossing picket lines and working ts week. and we had every management team member we could find trying to bake product but the damage was too great from several plants just really being out o--. melissa: let me be t devil's advocat here because ere are some people who say that, you know, that this has more to do with the fact that america's taste has shifted away from these products. that while i love the twinkie and a good ding dong as a kid and likely less to buy them to give to my kids in this day and age wre so much more foced on health and healthy ingredients. this is clever way, you

blame the unions maybe it just makes sense to break up the company, bak up the union contracts, liquidate it and sell off these brands, you know, to various private equity and that is better way to make money? is there any truth to that scenario? >> well there are a couple of points in there i like to address. melissa: sure. >> one, i don't think the health trends have affected hostess. if that were true you wouldn't have anybody making chocolate and selling chocolate bars. there are candy companies do extraordinarily well without healthy canned day. melissa: sure. >> our sales were 2 1/2 billion prebankruptcy filing. before i got on board, you about they didn't go down ve much during the bankruptcy. $2.5 billioo is oneheck of a lot of twinkies, ding dongs and ho-hos. the demd is not the issue but it the cost structure. you have to make them and sell them at a pfit. cost structure was driven by a number of factors and i'm not solely blaming the unions on this the history here is that the company was

not, there was not enough capital investment in this business over the past, say, decade or so. and there probably wasn't enough money in r&d to do brand extensions they should have done off those iconic brand that exist today but the high cost structure, the union cost structure, union work rules. you know, pension exposure, all of those things, you know, combined to pretty ugly picture. melissa: where do you go from here? we're making a lot of jokes about the twinkie gog away, which i mean, for me the love the twinkie. always just right. ding dongs to rich for me. sno-balls too much twinkie. a lot of people feel that way. a lot of fol in private equity said those are sme really valuable brands. people will swoop in bankruptcy and pick them up. i mean is that the real plan going forward is that you resell the individual brand and we are going to see twinkies and ding dongs and all the deliciousness boeing

forward? >> i hope that is the only plan we had left. we had a plan to emerge. we had lenders that would finance us if we got the unions on board. we couldn't get the bakers on board. what we have to do now, we sent everyone home today and we'll certainly market the brands. if there are buyers for those brand and those brand live on, that is a good thing and there will be some recovery. melissa: okay. >> to go towards the claims. melissa: great. just in case i have got to tell you i have stockpiled several crates of twipg can is in my office. it is really hard to get in there right now. i got books on one side i'm trying to sell and i have twinkies on the other that i'm not sharing. if you have any twinkies to unload give me a call, okay? >> i was told 10 minutes ago they are selling for quite some fortune on ebay. melissa: i'm not looking to make a profit. i'm hoarding. it has gotten very serious for me over here. normally i would be tempted. i would be reselling on ebay. this time i'm hoardg. good you can luck to you.

>> i will trade you twinkies for a copy of your book. melissa: you got it. all right. fantastic. we'll set that up. ha a grade weekend. thank you. so here's the question of the day are you going to stock up ontess products now that they're going out of business? more importantly are you willing to send those to me? we want to hear what you think. like us on facebook. i wasn't supposed to say that i added that part. facebook.com medicals list is a francis fox. twitter, at melissaafrancis. when you drink a beverage with four times as much caffeine as coke what could possibly go wrong? apparently plenty. the fda backs the makers of 5-hour energy drinks against the wall and that is not easy because they're really ramped up. it could bring lawsuits galore against the energy industry drink. that is coming up next. at the end of the day it is all about money.

♪ . melissa: so the food and drink administration is reporting a possible link between 5-hour energy drinks and 13 deaths.

the highly caffeinated beverages are the fastest growing type of soft drink in the u.s. obviously because coffee doesn't have enough caffeine with sales increasing 17% last year to $9 billion. the legal implications for the industry is immense. here to break it all down how bad it could get, ial attorney duane cates. thanks for coming on the show. let's break this down. you had three twinkies in the break. admit it. >> that's it. you got to get --. melissa: don't need the energy drinks. you have got the twinkies. fda reports a possible link between the deaths and the energy drinks. what does that mean? >> well, it means exactly that, it is a possible link. there is no finding that there's, that it caused the deaths. there is no causal link between it. it is simply the people have reported that there's been deaths and that they're going to look into it. so it really doesn't mean anything at this stage. melissa: but does it mean, i mean, they have to be getting nervous at this

point. whatould they have to prove. what would the people, families of people who died have to come out and prove in order for the energy drinks to be liable and what could it mean for their business. >> it would kill their business if they are found to be liable. it will be different cult because they have to prove a causal link between the energy drink and the deaths. they have to show it had something to do with the death. melissa: is it hard? >> it is hard. there are a lot of different ingredients. pele think maybe it is caffeine. maybe the vitamin b-6. they don't know exactly what it is. they don't know what the effects of all these different ingredients are. it will be difficult to move that is the cause. melissa: must be something there, if the fda found a link, there must be something there? >> setimes, they haven't found a link. ey're looking for a link. what they have done, people have complained that they have had these drinks and that people have died. melissa: so they're just investigating? >> they're just investigating. and one of the deaths i

heard that somebody died in a car accident and they found, they found 5-hour energy --. melissa: on the ground all over the place and thought maybe there was the connection? i'm exaggerating. >> so yeah, that is one of the connections that they're making. melissa: what dohese companies have to disclose? what do they have to say in order -- can they just say, hey, this is dangerous. you may get all hopped up on caffeine and then they're off the hook? or what is their liability and responsibility? >> labeling is tricky and, and one of the ways that somebody could file a lawsuit is saying there wasn't adequate warning labels on these bottles. melissa: yeah. >> there is warning lels on cigarette packages. there is warning labels on alcohol. and --. melissa: would a warning label take care of it? could they say this could be really dangerous to your health and they're good? >> it could because right now i don't think they can make the jump, i don't think there is any scientific evidence that says these energy drinks are going to kill you. okay? melissa: i have a more important question that is little off topic though.

because the twinkie is going away now, if i kill someone can i no longer use the twipg can i defense. >> it is a sad day for the legal communy. melissa: remember that, the twinkie defense? >> it wasn't successful. melissa: no one wants to use it ayway. thanks for coming on. have a great weekened. >> thanks, melissa. melissa: people are amazes how cheap the furniture is at eye kae yaw -- ikea and now we no why. they use forced labor to make it. you can never have too much money or too many twinkies. ♪

melissa: we are alrady partying. it's friday. it's time for a little fun with spe change. today we are jjoined by joey jackson and kendra smith. a food critic from "the new york times" to be discussing view to guy fieri about his new restaurant.

he said that his margarita tasted like formaldehyde and look like radiator fluid. the same day the review is printed from "the new york times" had a party at that very restaurant. we think of that? when you think they would poison on their food? i mean, obviously, they are spreading -- i mean, i can't even. >> talk about mean-spirited. it is one thing to write overview. but to be objective and go off like that, what was the agenda there? to be hypocritical and have the party with all the people there. >> myuess is the author was about to get fired or something and he wanted to draw a lot of attention to himself. that's all i can come up with. but wouldn't expect that much. it's in the heart of times

square. i wouldn't go in there expecting a culinary beast. >> what they did, it was unbelievable. and you scratch the surface. >> is the one oh, yeah, it was so long. they just torched them. torched him and torched them. i wrote the elevator with guy fieri that day and i kind of looked at him. you don't want to mention the elephant in the elevator, and i just let out online. but he looked happy. he didn't look like it was bugging him. but for them to ve the party that night -- that is what makes the stories are funny. okay, moving on, the independent reports show that furniture suppliers use force is labor from east germany to make products. of course, this was back in the 80s, but ikea says they deeply regret that this ever happened.

perhaps this explains why their stuff is so chea you have to hire foced labor in order to putting together once you get home. >> fortunately, this i't like forced child labor. it happened a long time ago. i think that ikea will get over this. i think they have a stron name and strong sales two that's all true. but i am traumatized. i have ikea there and ikea everywhere. unbelievable. i'm supporting that i'm not gointo get over it. melissa: go ahead and sue them, i love it. next p, a new proposal in a nudist. to show their passion for nudism, they showed up on the

steps of city hall naked. it reminds me of that seinfeld episode where there is good naked and bad naked. i definitely don't want to sit on a park bench where i'm paying taxes were gemmill and just got up in that state. all right, thank you guys. fiscal cliff is drawing clor and no one has offered any solid solution. he was going to step up for the deadline comes crashing down? tom sullivan has a little sothing to saybout that. reporter: i have heard a bunch of grumbling from my republican friends since losing the election. some are suggesting that john and the house republicans hold strong and not vote o raise taxes by one thin dime.

but the let the country go over the fiscal cliff. be strong. others, they are suggesting that the house republicans pulled their arms and let the ta increases on the upper income folks folks going folks going through. and then sit back and watch the economy crumble. that way, no one will be able to blame em for the lousy economy that is sure to come. both ideas make no sen. have a great belief in the business cycle. i believe the economy is bigger and stronger than washington politicians. so what if thedemocrats raise taxes on the wealthy, and the economy does naturally start to improve? then people will shout, see? raising taxes work. instead of playing games, the republicans need to be part of the solution. the president is determined to raise taxes on the wealthy and i think it's going to happen. justake sure that he gets credit for it if it doesn't solve the deficit problem. then you will we have to